The Third Estate Sunday Review focuses on politics and culture. We're an online magazine. We don't play nice and we don't kiss butt. In the words of Tuesday Weld: "I do not ever want to be a huge star. Do you think I want a success? I refused "Bonnie and Clyde" because I was nursing at the time but also because deep down I knew that it was going to be a huge success. The same was true of "Bob and Carol and Fred and Sue" or whatever it was called. It reeked of success."

Sunday, June 01, 2014

However, the Black delegation to the U.S. Congress from Florida is
nothing for any Black person to be proud off. All three Black Caucus
members from the state – Corrine Brown, Frederica Wilson, and Alcee
Hastings – signed on as co-sponsors
of the Venezuela sanctions bill. Once again, the Black Misleadership
Class shames 40 million African Americans with their slavish devotion to
the imperial powers-that-be. Venezuela is overwhelmingly a black and
brown country struggling to overcome centuries of racist internal rule
and national subjugation to the will of the White Colossus in the North.
The brown Obama is no better, nor are the sycophants of the
Congressional Black Caucus, whose notions of solidarity begin and end
with a checkbook.

If Venezuela’s sovereignty and dignity are to be preserved, it will
be through their own efforts and the determination of South Americans to
run their own affairs, to act in the spirit of Chavez, and the
still-living example of Fidel.

The US media has broadly cast the speech delivered by President
Barack Obama at West Point on Wednesday as a farewell to the decade-long
wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and an embrace of a more multilateral and
less militaristic American foreign policy.This interpretation
willfully ignores the content of the speech, which even more than those
Obama has given in the past asserts a policy of permanent and global war
in pursuit of the interests of the US financial elite. The media
distortion is driven, on the one hand, by the partisan motives of
Obama’s Republican rivals, who seek to portray him as weak-kneed, and,
on the other, by the support from a wealthy and privileged “liberal”
elite for wars of aggression waged under the banners of “human rights”
and “democracy.”

The sixties and The Sixties. One's a decade, one's a bad documentary. Ava and C.I. are your tour guides and, for the General Hospital fans who've lobbied for a mention of the show for three weeks now, Ava and C.I. make a detour to include that daytime drama.

It was longer. It posted and we have no idea why it's gone now. Actually, we do, we think we deleted a draft of this and deleted it in the process. Ava and C.I. said there's no f-ing way they're reptyping. So apologies to Wally and Ruth who had a comment that's not in here now. (Ava and C.I. say anyone else of the rest of us who wants to retype can.)Added 5 minutes later: Ava and C.I. have gone in and retyped Wally and Ruth's remarks, the piece is complete and as first published.

Last week, NINA spoke with Falluja Teaching Hospital's Dr. Ahmed al-Shami who explains at
least 461 civilians have been killed in the last five months and 1466
injured from these bombings:

Al-Shami told the National Iraqi News Agency / NINA / that / 461 /
civilians, 18% of them children, and 11 % women were killed, adding
that the number of wounded reached / 1466 / people, 19% of them
children, and 17 % of them women .

Those numbers should be disturbing. Is there a reason that news outlets outside of Iraq refuse to report them?

Oh, wait.

We just gave the reason: Those numbers should be disturbing.

So the same press that sold the illegal war is the last place to expect to be forthcoming or honest.

Iraqi
government forces battling armed groups in the western province of Anbar
since January 2014 have repeatedly struck Fallujah General Hospital
with mortar shells and other munitions, Human Rights Watch said today.
The recurring strikes on the main hospital, including with direct fire
weapons, strongly suggest that Iraqi forces have targeted it, which
would constitute a serious violation of the laws of war.

Since early May, government forces have also dropped barrel bombs on
residential neighborhoods of Fallujah and surrounding areas, part of an
intensified campaign against armed opposition groups, including the
Islamic State of Iraq and the Sham (ISIS). These indiscriminate attacks
have caused civilian casualties and forced thousands of residents to
flee.

“The government has been firing wildly into Fallujah’s residential
neighborhoods for more than four months, and ramped up its attacks in
May,” said Fred Abrahams,
special adviser at Human Rights Watch. “This reckless disregard for
civilians is deadly for people caught between government forces and
opposition groups.”The armed groups fighting against government forces in Anbar, including
ISIS, say they have executed captured Iraqi soldiers. ISIS has also
claimed responsibility for suicide and car bomb attacks against civilian
targets in other parts of Iraq in response to the assault on Fallujah.
Human Rights Watch has found that ISIS abuses probably amount to crimes against humanity.

In Fallujah, ISIS has planted improvised explosive devices along the
main highway and other parts of city, and is operating prisons in
Fallujah and elsewhere, Fallujah residents said.

Six witnesses Human Rights Watch interviewed, three of them hospital
staff, gave credible accounts of repeated strikes by government forces
on Fallujah’s main hospital since January that have severely damaged
buildings and injured patients and medical staff. An Iraqi government
security officer based in Anbar, who spoke to Human Rights Watch on
condition of anonymity, said government forces have targeted the
hospital with mortars and artillery on 16 separate occasions.

The three hospital employees said mortar shells and projectiles had at
various times struck the emergency room, the intensive care unit, the
central air conditioning unit, a trailer that housed Bangladeshi
hospital staff, and other parts of the hospital. The attacks injured
four Bangladeshi workers, three Iraqi doctors, and an unknown number of
patients, they said.

Such accounts of repeated strikes over four months, corroborated by
photographs of apparent damage to the hospital, strongly indicate the
hospital has been targeted, Human Rights Watch said.

Two witnesses to the hospital attacks, one of them a hospital employee,
said that non-ISIS anti-government fighters were guarding the hospital
and that wounded fighters were receiving treatment there. The
Anbar-based government security official said that, according to
information he received through his work and from hospital staff, ISIS
has partly taken over the hospital, using the second floor to treat
wounded fighters and administrative offices to detain high-level local
officials.

All hospitals, whether civilian or military, are specially protected
under the laws of war. They may not be targeted, even if being used to
treat enemy fighters. Under customary international law applicable to
the fighting in Anbar, hospitals remain protected unless they are used
to commit hostile acts that are outside their humanitarian function.
Even then, they are only subject to attack after a warning has been
given setting a reasonable time limit, and after such warning has gone
unheeded. Armed groups should not occupy or use medical facilities.

Witnesses and residents of Fallujah also described indiscriminate
mortar and rocket attacks that have killed civilians, and damaged or
destroyed homes, at least two mosques, and one school that were not
being used for military purposes.

Accounts from witnesses, residents and the government security official
indicate that, since the beginning of May, these indiscriminate
government attacks have included the use of barrel bombs, dropped from
helicopters, on populated areas of Fallujah. The Anbar-based security
official said the army has been using barrel bombs since about May 2 in
Fallujah, as well as in the towns of Garma, Saqlawiyya, Ibrahim Ibn Ali,
and surrounding areas. “They started using them [barrel bombs] because
they want to cause as much destruction as possible,” he said. “My
government … decided to destroy the city instead of trying to invade
it.”

And did Nouri cease his bombing of residential neighborhoods after the report came out?

No.

In fact, he also returned to bombing Falluja General Hospital.

He did that because the report came out on Thursday and was widely ignored.

AFP did work it into a report.

Where was everyone else?

Not in the press corps that covers the State Dept.

That group of lovelies refused to even ask about the civilian dead or even mention the Human Rights Watch report.

The sixties? A crazy
heady time that produced TV shows like Bewitched, Batman, The Flying Nun, Gidget,
My Mother The Car, Gilligan’s Island, Mission Impossible, I Dream Of Jeannie,
The Beverly Hillbillies, Julia, That Girl, The Man From Uncle, Honey West, I Spy,
Laugh-In, The Carol Burnett Show, The Smothers Brothers, The Dean Martin
Show, The Doris Day Show, Here’s Lucy,
The Lucy Show, The Dick Van Dyke Show, Star Trek, The Name of the Game, Dark
Shadows and so much more.

So much, much more, in fact, than the new series The Sixties
bothered to cover in their first episode last Thursday. Some will argue that each episode is only an
hour so there was a limit to what could be included and that is a valid point.

However, there are other valid points to be made as well.

The Tom Hanks produced series didn't, for instance, need Tom
Hanks yacking about TV.

Not only did his musings add nothing, but he also didn't
appear on sixties television. Bosom
Buddies was his seventies sitcom and when he did guest spots on Family Ties
that was the 80s.

Not only did Hanks not belong, neither did Phil Rosenthal.

Who?

Phil created the cesspool that was Everybody Wants To Love
Raymond. Phil isn't a bad person but it
needs to be noted that this was one of the worst productions of the '00s. We're not talking about what was onscreen.

We're also not talking about the cast. We're talking about the people behind the
scenes. We're specifically speaking of
two sexual predators who used the show as a lure for various assignations. They went around the country doing promo and
all they spread was ill will and a few social diseases.

Phil can work again.
The two we're speaking of have no future in the industry because you can
only get so many calls to the cops in various cities before the industry isn't
willing to risk a scandal for your mediocre talents.

Maybe Hanks can tell us about that when he does a series on
the '00s?

But this is a series on the sixties which
underscores why Phil shouldn't have been on.
He produced nothing for TV in the sixties.

But there he was talking about sixties TV and how it changed
everything and how you had diversity and –

Wait.

Did the creator of Everybody Loves Raymond just talk about
diversity?

Where was the diversity on Raymond?

Sherri Shepherd's Judy for eight episodes? Robert's police partner was
African-American. She was barely on
-- 8 episodes out of 210 episodes.
And that was it for the otherwise all White cast.

'It was a family show!'

Well the family had friends.
Why was it that none of Raymond’s friends or co-workers were people of
color? Why is it that Frank and Marie
knew so many couples but none included even one person of color? Why did the ‘liberal’ Deborah not have a
friend of color? Why is that Robert
dated and dated and dated but that never resulted in a woman of color?

The Romanos being White doesn't mean that they have to live in an
all-White world unless you’re in the mind of Phil. There was no reason to let Rosenthal yack on The Sixties about diversity (Bill Cosby "made race undeniable!") unless the point was to
show hypocrisy.

There was Phil Rosenthal babbling on about the breakthroughs
of sixties television as, hopefully, viewers registered that when Phil got
around to creating a show, he didn't advance anything, he didn't even stand
still. Instead, he actively turned the
clock backwards.

Diahann Carroll was on briefly, speaking about her sitcom
Julia which was a break through by being the first sitcom to feature an
African-American female lead.

Well, one in a professional, white collar job. Julia was a nurse.

The 'documentary' forgot Beulah.

That sitcom started airing in 1950 with Ethel Waters in the title role. The second season found Louise Beavers in the role and then Academy Award winner Hattie McDaniel. For the third season, the role was played by Beavers. Julia debuted 18 years later. Ethel Waters is the first African-American woman to star in a sitcom.

Then you had Petula Clark talking about how she and Harry
Belafonte were singing a song on her special and she touched his arm during the
performance enraging a sponsor and worrying the network.

They then went to Bill Cosby accepting an award. Bill, first as a co-star on I Spy, is a
television pioneer, no question.
Nichelle Nichols is as well and her Uhura (Star Trek) may be one of the
best remembered characters of sixties TV.
But if we’re talking breakthroughs for African-Americans on sixties TV,
the list has to include Diahann Carroll, Bill Cosby, Nichelle Nichols and -- pay
attention -- Greg Morris.

Morris starred on every season of Mission Impossible. He was the strong man, the muscle, who
intimidated and -- No, he wasn’t. That
was Willie. Casting Morris in that role
would have fit stereotypes. You still
see that stereotype used in multiple TV shows and movies today. Morris played Barney who was the brains of
the show. Yes, Jim Phelps was the leader
but Barney was the brains. And Morris
was playing a smart, dignified and sexy male at a time when African-Americans
had been relegated to the roles of servants or criminals.

We can think of others who should have been mentioned but weren't.

Clarence Williams III.
Shouldn't he have been included?
Linc, Julie and Pete? The three
crime fighters of The Mod Squad. Yes,
Claire Danes and company starred in a psyche cringing film remake of the TV
show but don’t hold that against sixties TV.
The trio was a team of equals in the series. How do you forget Clarence Williams III? Or what about Lloyd Haynes who not only starred in Room 222 with Karen Valentine but who was also nominated for Best Actor in the Emmy's comedy category? How do you forget him?

Maybe the same way you forget women.

Along with Carroll, Sally Field is among the celebrities
speaking to the camera. She’s funny in
her brief moments. But how do you do
sixties TV without mentioning Marlo Thomas and That Girl? Or talking about what a breakthrough Mary
Tyler Moore was as Laura Petrie?

Lucille Ball and Gracie Allen had created pioneering TV
characters in the 50s. While Allen retired in 1958 (and died in 1964), Lucy would continue to show women could be funny throughout the sixties, but this go round playing
widows.

TV wives, with Ball and Burns no
longer playing them, were not funny.
They were the straight men for the funny husbands.

Then came Mary Tyler Moore.

A beautiful woman, she was hired for her looks and charm as
well as the chemistry she and Dick Van Dyke had in readings.

She could have been the latest wife on The Danny Thomas Show
except for the fact that The Dick Van Dyke Show had a comedic genius behind it:
Carl Reiner.

Reiner knew comedy and loved comedy. When he saw that Mary could handle some small
funny bits, Laura was given more and more to do and one of TV’s funniest
comedians was embraced by sixties America.

Marlo Thomas followed in Mary’s footsteps. She played Ann Marie an aspiring actress in
New York City who, in a first, was unmarried and didn’t live at home.

While Mary, Marlo and Diahann deserve tremendous credit and
praise for the trails they blazed, we especially wonder where was Lucy who the special never named and only showed briefly at the Emmys presenting an award?

The Lucy Show and Here’s Lucy were tremendously popular
sixties programs and both have never stopped airing in syndication.

Women were short-changed over and over in the
broadcast. Goldie Hawn became famous on
Laugh-In.

To watch the special she did
so because she danced in a bikini sporting body paint.

Judy Carne was a good sport, she was not funny. That was true of many others who were known
for the show.

But the women who actually became famous did so because they
were funny.

Gracie Allen lived on in Goldie's Laugh-In character. Goldie’s timing was strictly her own but her
character was in the tradition of Gracie's work – much more so than Marilyn
Monroe's movie roles.

How sad that women were so unimportant to Tom Hanks and
company.

TV critics were featured
commenting in the hour and they even managed to include one woman. But they didn't manage to include any critics
of color. Which was rather strange and
left actress Diahann Carroll as the only person of color discussing the
breakthroughs for people of color in the sixties.

In other words, Tom Hanks has a lot of Phil
Rosenthal in him – and your first clue there probably should have been the
overwhelming Whiteness of his films after he becomes box office gold. (We’d start the count with Penny Marshall's A
League of Their Own which proved Big wasn’t a one-shot hit for Hanks. After he becomes box office gold, he can get
anything he wants and, in film after film, he appears to want a White world –
plus Denzel as an attorney and another with a bunch of pirates.)

It takes a lot of Whiteness to create a supposed documentary
that wants to note racial advancement but only as long as the people providing
the commentary and the critiques are White.

There were over 21 commentators and the only African-American among them was Diahann Carroll. Diahann was among four women allowed to provide modern day comments.

Hanks makes clear his disinterest in women and his belief that the story of TV’s Sixties Civil Rights Battle will be
told by White America – even though his picks weren't participants and they weren't
present for events.

The series tried to argue that you were present for events,
we were all present for events, via television.
A nation of couch potatoes were no doubt spawned in the sixties,
however, watching TV isn't being present.
The notion that it is would be as ridiculous as Hanks and company
claiming television news took over in the sixties and became dominant.

No, it didn't.

They offer Vietnam footage for about 15 seconds in the special and that’s
supposed to establish the importance of TV news. But the bulk of the important Vietnam
coverage would come in the seventies, not the sixties. With the exception of Vietnam, sixties news really didn't
have much.

‘Ava and C.I.! What are you talking about! TV news told us President Kennedy died, it
showed us riots in Chicago at the DNC convention! It –‘

But that was headlines, that was announcements, that wasn't
reporting. It was stick your head out a window and see what's happening across the street. Consider that 'displaying' but don't call it 'reporting.'

In the sixties, TV would do better at reporting in
documentaries. But the episode never
noted documentaries. Seventies TV,
largely spurred by the model that turned Jessica Savitch into a local media
star before NBC News grabbed her, would advance television reporting.

The reality of news was absent. Even more absent was daytime TV, especially
children’s programming and soap operas.

ABC’s General Hospital is currently celebrating its 50th anniversary meaning it began airing in 1964.
By the end of the sixties, it would be part of ABC’s daytime schedule
which also included One Life To Live, The Young Marrieds, The Nurses and Dark Shadows while CBS’ offerings
included As The World Turns, Guiding Light, The Edge of Night, Love of Life, Secret Storm and Search for Tomorrow and NBC was
airing soaps like Another World, Young Doctor Malone, Days of Our Lives and The Doctors.

In the desire of Hanks and company to promote ‘trippy’ in a
family-safe-and-friendly manner, you had an idiot (Hanks) declaring Disney’s ABC
offerings in the sixties were like Technicolor acid trips ("acid trip of a show"). But if you wanted the television equivalent of an
acid trip, you should have been checking out General Hospital’s recent Nurses
Ball episodes.

‘Luke’ (Anthony Geary) married Tracy (Jane Elliot) while
Lucy (Lynn Herring) was out of her dress kissing Scott (Kin Shriner) on stage as the curtains
went up and her husband Kevin and everyone present looked on. If that didn’t leave you reeling Dr. Obrecht (Kathleen Gaiti) should have.

The woman isn't just a doctor or just the chief of staff of
General Hospital, she’s also a criminal who, most recently (April) kidnapped
Elizabeth and a baby. Prior to that,
she’d kidnapped Robin, Jason and Scorpio.

So when Dr. Obrecht takes to the stage to sing "You were
always on my mind . . ." while scanning the audience, you sort of picture the various doctors and nurses
assembled shivering in their seats.

Between the plot lines, the casting of Donna Mills as Dr.
Obrecht’s sister Dr. Madeline West, and
Dr. Obrecht’s German accent circa MGM’s forties films, things can’t get much
trippier.

ABC's last surviving soap opera has an annoying habit these
days of offering 30 seconds of a scene before switching to another. So, for example, someone will be talking about
Alexis or Julian and then suddenly the camera cuts to Alexis and Julian for a few seconds before going back to the earlier scene.

These little quick cuts are supposed to create tension and
rhythm – something producer Gloria Monty and director Marlena Laird used to do
on General Hospital back in the eighties via camera shots – they’d switch shots
to add beats to the scenes.

If you’re thinking this cross-cutting serves to advance the storyline, you’re
wrong. Sonny discovered Ava had lied to
him about AJ (leading Sonny to kill AJ) and that Ava had killed Connie so he
rushes to the island to confront Ava.
It's three episodes after the confrontation starts before Sonny tells
Ava he knows she lied about AJ.

Three long episodes.
Start and stop scene after start and stop scene while the viewer waits
for Sonny to confront Ava over how he killed his adopted son’s biological
father, breaking a promise to his adopted son, because of her lies.

Three long episodes.

The quick cuts don’t advance the story one bit.

That's also true of The Sixties which also favors quick
cuts. It’s a good thing for Sally Field
that she is naturally funny. If, like a
few others, she’d tried to offer insight, she would have come off rather slow.

The Sixties illuminates nothing as it rushes around in a
scattershot manner, a never ending conga line of factoids which never register
as anything greater than paint droplets splattered on canvas.

Dona: We’re talking Congress and veterans with Ruth, Wally,
Kat, Ava and C.I. Last week was big news
for veterans. Chief among them the resignation
of Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki.

Wally: Something we have repeatedly called for.

Dona: Correct. It was
about two years ago we called for it in one of these. And now it’s happened. Surprising?

Wally: Not really.
Last Sunday, it was up in the air if this was even possible. However, things changed quickly last week as
more Democrats began calling for Shinseki to step down – this time elected
Democrats not Democrats running for office.
On one day, you had five sitting US senators, all Democrats, call for
Shinseki to resign. This came with a
White House official leaking to CNN that Shinseki wasn’t safe.

Ruth: And then came
the release of the Inspector General’s interim report on the Phoenix VA
Medical Center and documenting the existence of secret lists.

Dona: Explain that for those who missed it.

Ruth: VA Secretary Shinseki set the 14-day standard. Veterans needing medical attention would call
in for an appointment and see a doctor within 14 days. The Phoenix VA was keeping two sets of
lists. The official list documented that
the 14-day standard was being met. The
other list documented the reality of veterans waiting weeks and months for
appointments. These lists are said to
have been prevalent throughout the VA and currently over 40 centers are being
investigated. Whistle-blowers came
forward and I think you can make the point that CNN’s reporting has long
documented the secret lists were in place.
But with the Inspector General issuing the report and confirming it,
that took the issue to another level.

Dona: Was anyone surprised that Shinseki resigned?

Kat: I’m sure US House Rep. Corinne Brown flipped her wig
but for the rest of the world, it was expected.
Shinseki was becoming a “distraction” – a term used by both Shinseki and
Barack – and this scandal reflects on Barack Obama and the image got even worse
as nothing was done about it. So
Shinseki had to go. On Friday? I was surprised only that it didn’t come
later in the day. But obviously if you
want to make an announcement like this you will do it on Friday. Unless it’s a Saturday Night Massacre – thank
you to Ava and C.I. for getting my Watergate joke just now, they’re
laughing. But, yeah, it had to happen on
a Friday. And for the reasons that Wally
and Ruth outlined, this was coming, this was going to happen.

Dona: What changes now?
Shinseki’s gone, what’s been accomplished?

Ava: Accountability.
There are people at the VA who now realize the Secretary lost his job
over this. If he can be held
accountable, anyone can. And anyone
should. In Friday’s snapshot, C.I.
addressed the very big issue that everyone’s ignored: The VA has operated in a
culture of secrecy. This has been going
on since 2009. The VA has not been open,
it has not provided Congress with needed information,it has ignored
Congressional requests, it has lied and so much more. Shinseki’s departure means other officials
are grasping they could be held accountable as well. It puts people on notice.

Dona: I was hoping to wait a bit on noting the hearings but
Ava’s opened the door so let’s do it now.
Last week, the House Veterans Affairs Committee and Subcomittees held
three hearings. Everyone was at all
three, right?

Kat: Yes. But the
Wednesday night hearing was one that Wally, Ava and I were only at for the
start. We left during it. I think we were there for 90 minutes. Ruth and C.I. were there for the full
hearing.

Dona: Okay. So
there’s the Wednesday night hearing, the full House Veterans Affairs Committee
hearing. The reporting on it is:

Dona: Kat, big stand out?

Kat: The hearing itself.
By Friday, as the conventional wisdom was whining, “We’re all at
fault!,” it was left to C.I. to note, “Uh, no.”
This hearing was about Congressional requests being ignored by the
VA. The Committee had to issue subpoenas
and they are still being denied what they’re requesting. It’s amazing how much secrecy the VA has
been allowed by the administration to operate in and amazing that it’s left to
C.I. to cover this while others are screaming, “It’s Congress’ fault!”

Wally: How can Congress be at fault when they are fighting
to get information that they are legally entitled to? Efforts to blame Congress actually really
point the administration’s refusal to make the VA comply with the law.

Dona: We seem eager to get into the culture of secrecy so
let me bring C.I. in. Ty printed up 32
e-mails from veterans who stressed that C.I.’s “culture of secrecy” got to the
real heart of the matter. So clearly
this – this strummed a chord others have heard.
It resonated. Ava’s laughing at
my “strummed a chord” – I was trying to avoid a bromide. So, C.I., “culture of secrecy.”

C.I.: The minute Shinseki’s resignation became public,
various gasbags tried to rush out with, “We’re all to blame!” No, we aren’t. As Wally was saying earlier and Ava had noted
before that, you can’t provide oversight if you’re not provided facts. Congress does not serve at the pleasure of
the President. The Congress is the
people’s voice. The Legislative branch
is a co-equal branch of government. The
executive branch, which the VA is part of, has not respected that. They have refused to hand over information,
they have lied and they have concealed.
The secret list is about this.
The culture of secrecy is found in the Washington state scandal where
the VA was caught stripping veterans of Post-Traumatic Stress diagnoses in
order to avoid giving them the benefits – money – that they needed. There is a big mistake being made right now –

Dona: I agree and I’m stopping you for a second. The snapshot went up so early on Friday. Jim noted it wasn’t even five o’clock yet
here, in California, when it went up. He
said, “C.I. must be trying to get ahead of it.”
Ahead of the gas baggery that was rewriting history and events.

C.I.: Yes, Jim was correct about that. That’s the big
mistake where we start acting (a) like it’s everyone’s fault and (b) like it’s
one event. There have been numerous
scandals under Shinseki. The common
thread is the culture of secrecy.

Dona: You note how this secrecy is encouraged.

C.I.: It really is.
You’ve got, one example, the Office of the Inspector General finding
errors in VA’s Quick Start program and the VA insisting these aren’t errors by
their definition. By their
definition? The watchdog’s definition is
the definition that needs to be used.
But VA is allowed to create their own definitions and terms to hide
reality. This needs to stop. Immediately.
This is how the road you’re on ends in cooking the books and keeping
secret lists. The transparency is not
there and it is not appreciated – these are cultural issues within the VA that
need to be addressed immediately. And if
they are, the VA can be stronger and serve veterans. If the cultural issue is not addressed, it
will continue and the Congress will be dealing with one scandal after another
as they have been since 2009.

Dona: What was striking about your report on Friday was just
how many scandals there were and how, come October, there will be more problems
if anyone wants to pay attention. You
talk about how none of Quick Start’s goals are going to be met.

C.I.: It’s impossible.
The IG provided the true figures Thursday afternoon in the Subcommittee
hearing and this was the first Congress was hearing. They’d heard from the VA about the
progress. The VA had lied. To offer just one example, the number of days
for a disability claim? They’ve shaved off
a few days over the last years but you’re looking at them cutting in half their
current totals – doing so in five months.
This is not practical.

Dona: And no one’s reporting on it.

C.I.: Acknowledging it doesn’t fit in with the narrative some
are trying to impose. The VA is
failing. It is failing badly. Until the VA starts embracing a culture of transparency
there will be continued scandals as they try to cover up their mistakes.

Dona: Okay, here are the reports that the five of you
offered. C.I. reported on all three he

Wally: I would just state that Dr. Thomas Lynch and Joan
Mooney both agreed to support the Justice Department investigating the VA if
that is what the IG said. I think that’s
important because I’ve seen too many people make these remarks and then go back
on them. So I want that out there for
the record.

Dona: Okay. Ruth?

Ruth: It would be the Thursday morning hearing that blind
veterans testified in. C.I. wrote about
that as we were sitting in the hearing and I thought – I marvel over how she
addressed Browsealoud. That is what the
Committee has on their website. And the
blind veterans were talking about how the site was not accessible. This puzzled one Committee member. C.I., reporting on this as it happens, notes
that Browsealoud is geared towards dyslexics not the blind. Like the Committee member, I would not have
thought there was an issue there. But
there is an issue there. I also thought
the veterans did a very good job of explaining what they experience and noting
the need for the registry of veterans who have suffered eye injuries.

Dona: Kat, your turn.

Kat: First and foremost, Beto O’Roarke really is the hottest
man in Congress. Paul Ryan needs to pass
on the crown.

Dona: The Texas Democrat.

Kat: Yes. I’ll go
with Beto, in fact, for what stood out.
In El Paso, veterans using the local VA medical center are not being
served. They lack a full service VA and,
as a result, something as basic as a prescription involves a journey that
resembles the days of The Pony Express.
That needs to be addressed and dealt with. Like Ruth, I was impressed with the blind
veterans testimony. A Democrat, I can’t
think of who –

C.I.: US House Rep. Mark Tanko from California.

Kat: Thank you. That’s him.
He pointed out how some groups are less represented in the conversation
and the blind veterans brought important issues that needed to be raised and
they did so very well. As the first
panel ended, it was very clear that not all the needed issues had been touched
upon and I’ll leave it at that except to note a veteran pointed that out to
them as the panel was ending.

Dona: Ava? Oh, wait.
Corinne Brown. The e-mails from
veterans said to thank you and to thank C.I. for calling out Corinne
Brown. She has a lousy reputation with
veterans. I’m trying to wind down but,
Ava, could you talk about Brown?

Ava: Sure. She’s a
lousy member of Congress. She was a
vocal defender of veterans and would talk about how bad the VA was when Bully
Boy Bush was in office. Now she spends
all of her time defending the VA. In
hearing after hearing, she’s made clear that she’s an apologist for the VA –
even worse so than Senator Bernie Sanders. This year, she reached a new low when veteran
***** appeared before the House Committee and explained how poor medical
service and lack of access to health care led his cancer to go undiagnosed
until it reached stage-four. The
ridiculous Corinne Brown wanted to lecture a dying man on his attitude and to
tell him that she had a friend who was supposed to die immediately but he’s
still here. She’s trash. And she needs to be off the Committee. Where would you place her? How about the Education Committee? Then every time she opened her mouth, we
could all laugh that someone too stupid to know the English language was
sitting on the Education Committee.
Veterans do not like Corinne Brown.
They don’t like her because she blames them, she attacks them and she
excuses the VA.

Dona: Thank you.
Briefly, what stands out to you from the three days of hearings?

Ava: Honestly, I guess that they took place. That showed serious focus and effort on the
part of the House Veterans Affairs Committee.
There was a hearing years ago, when Bob Filner was Chair, where C.I., Kat,
Wally and I were about 15 people present because everyone wanted to leave DC
for the Christmas break. That hearing
showed dedication. These three did as
well. Especially the night hearing. I would have loved to have stayed but I do
have a young child and I did need to leave.
But even though I left, I do applaud the Committee for their stamina and
determination.

Dona: A veteran e-mailed to say you two discussed this last week after the morning hearing Thursday. He's from Philadelphia if that helps jog your memory.

Wally: Yeah, I know him. He's a good guy. He's usually at the hearings and he's one of the people we usually talk to. Bernie Sanders has made a point to offer excuses for the VA and has refused to stand with veterans. Prior to that he held a hearing on yoga and other topics and most veterans I've spoken to feel that when there's a wait list issue and vets are suffering, you shut up about yoga and focus on real issues. All the vets I spoke to last week feel Sanders has betrayed them.

Dona: And Ruth, why not make the same case for Ranking Member Richard Burr?

Ruth: Senator Burr is not seen as betraying veterans or being an apologist for the VA. He has upset the heads of some Veterans Service organizations for criticizing them. That is not the same thing as being seen as an excuse maker for the VA. And I agree that Senator Sanders needs to be replaced.

Dona: C.I., what stands out to you from last week's hearings?

C.I.: Too much. Let me focus on the lack of common
sense. VA doctors are overworked. One reason is they are doing all of this data
entry. US House Rep. Phil Roe addressed
this. He is also a doctor. He said if he was attempting to do this, it
would take up 50% of his time, that the VA needed to hire clerks for the doctors
who would take on those tasks and it would allow the VA doctors the time to see
more patients. That’s basic, it’s common
sense. Applause for Roe for seeing the
problem, identifying it and explaining how to fix it. But that’s the kind of common sense you
really wish the VA had internally but doesn’t.

Dona: Alright. Thank
you all. This is a rush transcript. Our e-mail address is thethirdestatesundayreview@yahoo.com. And finally, C.I. has noted her belief that
the best person for the job of Secretary of the VA is Patrick Murphy. Jim and I want to add our voices to
that. Murphy is an Iraq War veteran and
he’s also served in Congress. The VA is
a mess and it’s going to require a lot of energy and a lot of caring to improve
things. Murphy is up for the job and has
the needed skill set. He would also see
it as a duty to fix the VA. He is the
best choice for the job and I hope he is at least considered for it.

How you go from an X-Men that features strong and active women involved in the storylines like Storm, Jean Grey and Rogue as well as Mystique to a 2014 embarrassment where Storm's an extra who dies without even getting a hero's death scene?

Where Kitty Pride is reduced to nothing?

X-Men: Days of Future Past is based on the earlier comic and in the comice it was Kitty who was sent back in time to save the mutants. In the film, it's Wolverine and Kitty doesn't go with. No, she just stands by his body throughout the film with her hands on either side of his head.

Rogue and Jean Grey? They're in the tacked on ending to the film. And at least Jean gets lines. We don't even hear from Rogue.

Mystique?

Rebecca Romijn played her as an active villain in charge of her destiny.

Jennifer Lawrence plays her as a simpering victim throwing a tantrum. (Lawrence isn't helped by a script that turns Mystique into a pawn for Charles and Magneto to fight over.)

(Washington, D.C.) Today, Friday, May 30th, 2014, Senator Patty Murray made the following statement on the resignation of Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric
Shinseki.

“There
are serious problems at the VA that won’t be solved simply by replacing
the Secretary, but I am hopeful that this leadership change will spark
structural, cultural,
and personnel changes, from the top of the organization to the bottom,
to make sure our veterans are getting the care and support they expect
and deserve.

“I
will be working closely with President Obama and his Administration as
they look for a new Secretary who will provide strong leadership for the
Department and who
will work with me and others to make much-needed changes and
improvements at the VA. This transition is also a time for every
employee at the VA to step up and do everything they can to help
veterans and work toward a culture of transparency as changes are
being implemented. And as these changes are being made, I will work
with my colleagues in Congress to make sure these improvements are being
supported.

“I
stand with veterans and families in Washington state and across the
country in thanking Secretary Shinseki for his years of work for
veterans and for his lifetime
of service to the United States of America.”

US House Rep Jeff Miller is the Chair of the House Veterans Affairs Committee. His office issued the following on Friday:

For more information, contact: Curt Cashour, (202) 225-3527

May 30, 2014

WASHINGTON, D.C.— Following the announcement of VA Secretary Eric
Shinseki’s resignation, Chairman Jeff Miller released the following
statement."Everybody knows Eric Shinseki is an honorable man whose dedication
to our country is beyond reproach. I thank him for his legacy of service
to our nation. Unfortunately, Shinseki's tenure at the Department of
Veterans Affairs will forever be tainted by a pervasive lack of
accountability among poorly performing VA employees and managers,
apparent widespread corruption among medical center officials and an
unparalleled lack of transparency with Congress, the public and the
press. Appropriately, Shinseki is taking the brunt of the blame for
these problems, but he is not the only one within VA who bears
responsibility. Nearly every member of Shinseki's inner circle failed
him in a major way. Those who surrounded Shinseki shielded him from
crucial facts and hid bad news reports, in the process convincing him
that some of the department’s most serious, well documented and systemic
issues were merely isolated incidents to be ignored. Eric Shinseki
trusted the VA bureaucracy, and the VA bureaucracy let him down.”“Right now, VA needs a leader who will take swift and decisive action
to discipline employees responsible for mismanagement, negligence and
corruption that harms veterans while taking bold steps to replace the
department’s culture of complacency with a climate of accountability.
VA’s problems are deadly serious, and whomever the next secretary may
be, they will receive no grace period from America’s veterans, American
taxpayers and Congress.” – Rep. Jeff Miller, Chairman, House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs

Comics Unmasked: Drawing the battle lines in a fun fight with authority

The British Library exhibition Comics Unmasked:
Art and Anarchy calls for Britain’s tradition of comics to be taken
seriously, writes Annette Mackin

Comics - more than just for children (Pic: Enokson on Flickr)

Storytelling through a sequence of images has a history dating back
to cave paintings, through illustrated newspapers right to modern
comics.

Detractors of comics say that they are outdated or just for children.
But a big and broad exhibition at the British Library seeks to
challenge this idea. It showcases some rare and interesting examples
that take on the notion that comics begin and end with the likes of the
Beano and the Dandy.

The exhibition approaches comics from the angle that they are largely
subversive and a challenge to authority, whether in a good way or a bad
way.

It presents examples of how comics have inspired real world
resistance. In every nook and cranny are mannequins wearing the iconic
Guy Fawkes mask from Alan Moore’s dystopian V for Vendetta graphic
novel, now ubiquitous on many protests.

It is the politics section of the exhibition which presents the real power of the comic as a cultural product.Riots

One of the first publications on display is Riot, a comic from 1981
which deals with the conflicted narrative of a police officer during the
Brixton riots. It runs through his experiences of the police’s
brutality and racism.

Finally, disgusted with what he sees, he refuses
to give evidence against a looter.

A rarity on show is Action Pact, a 1979 publication by unknown
authors which arose out of the anti-fascist movement around the Anti
Nazi League.

It tells the story of two school friends with super powers who fight
the lies of a baddie dressed like the Ku Klux Klan. It was circulated in
schools to help popularise anti-fascist views and equip children with
arguments in the playground.

Not all comics present righteous challenges to dominant ideas
however. Also on display is wife-beating alcoholic Andy Capp, a comic
strip which still exists albeit in a heavily toned down form. It stands
in a tradition of anti-working class and reactionary characters that
also go right back to the 19th century.

There is also the first ever comic strip to have been written and
illustrated by women. Enid Blyton wrote and Dorothy M Wheeler drew
Mandy, Mops and Cubby, which was printed in the Evening Standard
newspaper in 1951.

In it a black boy voices his desire to have a white face, and asks a
painter if he would whitewash him so he can “look beautiful”.

This and many other exhibits bring home that neither comics nor any
other medium is inherently progressive or subversive. But there’s still a
rich tradition of comics that are—one that continues to this day.

Comics Unmasked: Art and Anarchy British Library, central London Until 19 August, Various ticket prices, booking essential at bit.ly/1hkRHpK

No to U.S intervention in Syrian election

Following is the statement of the International Action Center on the upcoming election in Syria.

The Syrian people are holding a presidential election June 3. What
makes this election unique is that it can help protect the sovereignty,
even the existence of this country. It can help end the bloody war that
has drained the lifeblood of the country. It is seen as an essential
step toward national reconciliation.

For the past three years, Syria has been under attack by the U.S.,
NATO and by the U.S.-allied absolute monarchies that govern Saudi Arabia
and the United Arab Emirates. They are fighting a proxy war with
mercenaries and reactionary sectarian forces that Washington itself
recognizes are terrorists — when they’re not carrying out U.S. plans.

Washington’s stated goal is “regime change,” that is, to eliminate
the government led by Bashar al-Assad.

What “regime change” really means
is the destruction of Syria. To bring this about, the U.S. and its
allies have financed a war that has killed over 150,000 people and
displaced one-third of the 23 million Syrians.
Washington claims they want “democracy” in Syria. But U.S. wars have
never brought democracy. Just destruction. Think of what U.S.
intervention has brought to Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and the Balkans.
Think of the fascists that U.S. intervention put in positions of power
in Ukraine. The worst thing that can happen to the Syrians would be for
the U.S.-NATO-Saudi forces to win.

Election observers from the U.S. are expected to join observers from
the BRICS countries — Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa — and
Iran, Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua, Bolivia, Ecuador and other countries,
representing the overwhelming majority of the people of the world. This
election is a national expression of the fact that the Syrian people are
determined to chart their own future.

U.S. anti-war activists, including from the International Action
Center and other anti-war organizations, are participating as election
observers in Syria. They participate knowing that the overwhelming
majority of the U.S. population is against another war. Any such war
will not only harm the people of Syria, but also the U.S. population. As
Martin Luther King Jr. said in 1967, the bombs that drop on Vietnam —
or on Libya or Syria, we need to add — also drop on the inner cities of
the United States. They attack the working people in the U.S.Self-determination for the Syrian people!We need jobs, health care and housing, not endless war!IACenter.org 212-633-6646

Articles copyright 1995-2014 Workers World. Verbatim copying and
distribution is permitted in any medium without royalty provided this
notice is preserved.

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About Me

Jim, Dona, Jess, Ty, "Ava" started out this site as five students enrolled in journalism in NY. Now? We're still students. We're in CA. Journalism? The majority scoffs at the notion.
From the start, at the very start, C.I. of The Common Ills has helped with the writing here. C.I.'s part of our core six/gang. (C.I. and Ava write the TV commentaries by themselves.) So that's the six of us. We also credit Dallas as our link locator, soundboard and much more. We try to remember to thank him each week (don't always remember to note it here) but we'll note him in this. So this is a site by the gang/core six: Jim, Dona, Ty, Jess, Ava and C.I. (of The Common Ills).